| 07/11/2006 03:50:11 PM
 The US
Government has designated thousands of miles of ocean off the coast of Alaska
as a critical habitat for one of the rarest whales in the world.
Northern Pacific right whales, a species that has been listed as endangered for
decades, have 36,750 square miles in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, in
which they will be protected.
The area was identified as crucial
after expeditions between 1996 and 2003 cited a high density of these
endangered whales in the vicinity.
It is estimated that the
population of Northern Pacific right whales now stands at just a few hundred
individuals after having been driven to near extinction through hunting. Before
the ban on commercial whaling, introduced in 1986 by the International Whaling
Commission (IWC), right whales were hunted down by whaling ships. In fact, the
name ‘right whale’ comes from the fact that they were thought to be
the ‘right’ whale to hunt.
A spokesperson for WDCS
said: “This is great news for the Northern Pacific right whale, a species
which has been driven to the very brink of extinction. We need to offer this
whale species all the protection we can if there is to be any future for
it.”
Source: WDCS |
